How Cloth Diapering Can Save You $$$

It’s not hard to see how cloth diapering can save you money. The question is: Will you get passed the cloth diapering myths and let cloth diapering open up more room in your overall budget?!

When I was expecting our second baby and it was obviously that our firstborn was not going to be easy to potty train, I started to fret about how in the world we would be able to afford disposable diapers for two.

Previously, I had sworn up and down that I would never try cloth diapers. I believed all the stereotypical myths: they would not work and they would be so much messier.

But when my second baby came home from the hospital with a terrible diaper rash that just would not go away, I decided to throw caution to the wind and give cloth diapers a try.

I’m now using the same stash of diapers on my third child. My diapers paid for themselves long ago, and I’ve been saving money ever since by NOT having to buy diapers or even spend gas to run to the store to get them.

A Cost Comparison of Cloth vs. Disposable Diapers

The average cost of disposable diapers for two years is more than $1,400! Some even estimate double this number–but I know you ladies like to shop sales, so I am giving the lowest possible number to you. 😉

This cost is higher if your child potty trains later than age two (which, um, has happened with both my first two children). The cost will also be more if you choose to use premium-priced, environmentally-friendly diapers, such as Seventh Generation, Earth’s Best or Huggies Naturals brands (but I bet y’all don’t buy those–unless you have a coupon! 😉 ).

A cloth diaper stash can feasibly cost $300 or less and can be used for your next little one! Cloth diapers also have a very good resale value, so you can realistically get back much of the cost by selling your diapers after your child outgrows them or potty trains.

Let’s look at a cost comparison of several diaper brands versus cloth diapers. Keep in mind that you can cloth diaper from newborn to potty training for around $300, and that number can be divided by two if you cloth diaper two children using the same diapers–or three if you cloth diaper a third with the same ones (as I am now doing!).

(By the way, Barry designed the following chart!)

As the chart clearly shows, even with using a budget brand, you will still pay at the very least more than $900 on diapers, not even counting wipes. When I saw that I could cloth diaper for one third of that price, it became a no-brainer to convert to cloth.

The evidence is clear that using cloth diapers can save you a lot of money, and they probably save much more than the chart shows.

If you resell your diapers, the savings is even more maximized. For an even better estimate on how much money your family can save by using cloth diapers, fill out the cloth diaper cost calculator at Diaper Pin. Or, view this chart at Diaper Decisions, which
takes into consideration various cloth diaper types and the cost of energy it takes to launder them.

Do you use cloth diapers? Why or why not? From your perspective, how can cloth diapering save you money?

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Comments

We loved cloth diapers! We used the fitted type with snaps, which are more expensive than prefolds, but still I’m sure we saved money. More importantly, when we did try disposables, we felt that they were INFERIOR FAKE DIAPERS compared to our cloth diapers–crinkly, smelly, leaky, gross!

We’re expecting another baby now, when our son is almost 9 and I sold his diapers long ago. I’m excited that I get to shop for cute fluffy diapers all over again! 🙂

Hi, everyone; I’ve been using homemade cloth diapers and pad for my handicapped dachshund, and I’ve read all about how to wash them, and so on. So far, it’s been perfect. However, after my elderly mother got her power turned off (dementia, bill non-paying, etc.), I’ve been staying for a week there without a working washer. The doggie’s diapers have been waiting until today to wash….My first load didn’t get the smell out! Re-washing with another (commercial, non-clean, detergent) and vinegar, right now. Worried, though. Any advice about how to get them back to freshness?

this happens with the microfiber inserts I used for my son’s diapers as well… there’s a couple of options but I don’t know what type of diapers you have… Since I use a system with waterproof cover and snaps I just have inserts that are made with either hemp (my baby was allergic) or microfiber ( I love these) Anyway first thing is I use special laundry detergent calld Rock n Green, they also make a product Rock in green all natural ammonia bouncer called funk rock, occasionally when there is a build up of detergent etc… I just use that and It’s usually effective. Also the best solution that I’ve read but never done is if you are able to after washing the diapers let them sun dry and that also helps take out the smell. All cloth diapers at some point get a build up and have to be “stripped” Again, depending on the diaper system you’re using, look up the directions for the stipping process or go by the Funk Rock.. wash again and dry in sun, you should be set. Luckily my boy is doing finally pretty well on the potty training, however now I have a male dog experiencing some serious urinary and bowel issues that happened very fast.I’m lucky he doesn’t have a tail, however he weighs like 85 pounds so I’m trying to figure out if there is anyway I can reuse the disposable diapers I have for the dog, but I don’t think size 4 is going to work! I did also read that turning the diapers backwards made a difference. I’ll be spending my christmas trying to de-mat my poor dog and maybe shaving him down, even though it’s winter he’s a Black Russian Terrier and has a lot of fur in the winter, so if I shave him down again, he might loose 15 pounds! wish me luck

I love cloth diapers! I don’t like laundry, but definitely think they are worth the extra work. And my daughter is so sensitive, I think we would have had to switch to them anyway… I do hope for a bit of a break from them before #2 comes along though. We are potty training right now! 🙂

For you cloth diapering ladies, I mostly use prefolds but have a large stash of Fuzzibunzs and Happy Heiny’s that became water repellent. I have well water that has a water softener system on it. I have tried the stripping methods that are readily found on the diaper websites..oxyclean, dawn, LOTS of washing in hot water…even some kind of hunter’s detergent. My diapers smell fine, smell was never an issue…but I can’t seem to get the microfleece back to its original absorbancy. Do any of you have any suggestions? I really love to use pocket diapers as night diapers, but end up with a soaked bed and baby and a dry diaper. 🙁

LOL! Would you please tell me how you stripped the diapers? I’m desperate to get my diapers working again! I hate going through so many disposables (2/night..twins), but my twins end up with diaper rash if I use just prefolds and inserts on top of those for absorbancy. 🙁

I do not cloth diaper. Like another poster said, I struggle with getting regular laundry done as it is!! Because I shop sales, combining coupons with ECB and any other deals I can find, I’ve spent less than $250 for all of my 18 month old’s premium disposable diapers. And I still have at least 3 months worth left in my stockpile. My goal is to pay less than $4 per pack which I’ve always been able to do. I think your estimates of how many diapers are used is a little high–I use about 4 diapers a day now. When she was younger, I used 6-8 at most. I also am blessed to be able to do diaper studies (since I live in P&G’s hometown) which have provided about 8 weeks worth of diapers since she’s been born, so that’s also helped some with keeping costs down. I know to each their own, but I prefer the convenience of disposable. Even if I were paying double what I do, I would still continue.

My daughter wore 1 disposable diaper after leaving the hospital (I once got caught out without a spare – luckily I was at a mommy and me movie where they’d provided disposables). Not only did I CD the entire time, but I bought my starter stash used (or even better freecycled!) and then made my own once I decided what I wanted from a diaper – I joined a fabric buying coop and got premium fabric for pennies! I honestly don’t know how people can afford to buy disposables (not to mention that I hate the thought of all that stuff going to landfill).

I use very expensive cloth diapers, bumgenius 4.0 (they run about $18/each), they’re “all-in-one, one-size,” which means I can use them for the entire diapering period (usually almost 3 years per child). I usually buy a new stash for each child, which costs about $300-400 (I just buy a few at a time before baby comes). I use disposables at night and on outings, and I STILL save a TON of money!!! LOVE CDing. 🙂 It’s so easy with the great CDs these days. 🙂

We cloth and we love it. I’ve only run into ammonia problems with microfiber. After I switched to bamboo or cotton or hemp (natural fibers), all I have to do is add an extra hot wash with no soap every once in awhile if they start to get stinky. cloth diapering is so easy if you have time to add a load of wash every other day. We now use pockets and flats (as simple as walmart flour sack towels) since we rinse poop after adding solids to her diet. All of these parts can hang to dry overnight. The other styles work well but we really enjoy that we know the flats come very clean and we don’t have to use the dryer to dry them. We simply use Ecos (available at major retailers-we get ours at the grocery store) as our detergent. We have a diaper sprayer attached to our toilet or poop rinsing. we use disposables overnight because that works well for us. There is no wrong way to cloth diaper. You can do it as much or as little as it works for you.

I first used cloth because my son would get rashes to most all brands of disposables! I used them for almost a year before my pregnancy nose couldn’t handle toddler poop 😉 Cloth are the default for my daughter now – I still use disposable for travel and overnight but I love my little routine of cloth. Plus I bought my entire stash from a WAHM friend and I love supporting her, plus I LOVE her product!

I use cloth diapers and LOVE them! I have only been doing it for about 5 months now, but there are so many reasons why they have proved to be a good choice! Not only have they already paid for themselves, but they save on the stinky trash! We have not had a blow-out since we started cloth and to me that is a huge plus!! There were a few things I needed to buy along with the diapers to get started, like wet bags and pail liners. Over all it has definitely been worth it!

We are currently CD-ing our 7th baby. I am so thankful that we had planned to CD before she was born as her skin is so sensitive she can only have natural fibers on her. I used the time during my pregnancy to slowly build up my stash and learn all I could about CD-ing. While I have spent about $900 on cloth paraphernalia, I am still saving a ton and plan on selling what didn’t work for us. Only one of my kids potty trained at 2, the rest were 3 yrs old. I have found the best CD-ing is prefolds and covers, it is also the cheapest method. Some CD are super expensive, you don’t need those. If I would have just bought prefolds and covers and wool, my costs would have at least been half. Be careful, CD-ing can become an addiction =)

I don’t cloth diaper. And I know I spend about $58 every 3 weeks to diaper my almost 3 year old and 11 month old. I have had a hard time with the idea of forking out the cost all at once. But I also am terrible at keeping up on my laundry so I worry about running out of diapers or ruining them because they sat too long. I keep telling myself when I don’t have a weeks worth of laundry to do I will convince my husband they are worth it.

I would love to save money by switching, but I have a few questions.
1) how long can your child wear a cloth diaper after they soil it? Are they miserable immediately? I am amazed at how much the disposable diapers hold. My baby has slept through the night for a long time and I wonder if she wore cloth diapers would she wake up bc they aren’t as absorbent.
2) The savings obviously are huge, but sometimes I relate with the saying time is money (I work full time). Do you feel you spend more time changing and laundering cloth diapers compared to disposables?

You will definitely have to change your baby more often. How often depends on the diapers and the baby. I use prefolds and you really need to change soon fairly often. Otherwise, rashes can result. As far as laundry- other than spraying the diapers off if they are dirty, it’s not much extra time to throw diapers in the washer and then in the dryer. I don’t hang my prefolds to dry…they end up feeling like sandpaper and being stiff as a board. I have diapered 4 children, my current ones being twins and I can’t possibly imagine having to keep them in disposables. I use disposables when we travel or are out for the day and I hate the money wasted…but do it for convenience. For me, it’s well worth any extra time!

I worked 25 hours/week when my first child was in diapers, and I will be working full-time after my maternity leave with this one. The trick is to get into the habit of doing laundry every day: Day 1 wash diapers and hang to dry, Day 2 wash clothes, Day 3 fluff diapers in dryer, Day 4 wash clothes. One load does not take much time.

My son needed to be changed during the night when he was a tiny baby, but after a while he stopped pooping at night and would pee small enough amounts that he could wear the same diaper all night. The great thing about cloth is that you can add layers to it using “doublers” in the crotch with no extra bulk at the hips. By the time my son was 17 months, he did not pee while sleeping but only first thing after waking; it took us a year to get him to do it in the potty consistently, but even when he was wetting his diaper in the morning, at least it had been dry all night so no risk of rash.

We have chosen to cloth diaper #4 and it has saved us money especially as I plan to reuse them for #5. At this point, though, my sanity is slipping as we have encountered ammonia problems that I can’t seem to get rid of. Agh! I really want to keep cloth diapering, but can’t afford some of the “tricks” to get rid of ammonia.

We were having ammonia problems, too. I *think* I’ve figured it out (we’ll see if it happens again): We have very hard water here. Smell seems to be the only problem we’ve encountered. No repelling problems. First, I stripped the diapers with very hot water and nothing else (added a kettle of boiling water to the washer water). Then, with the next wash, I added Calgon to the water and less diaper detergent (I use bum genius detergent, so instead of 2 scoops I use 1). If using a powder detergent, make sure it’s dissolved before adding the diapers to prevent build up. Anyway, that’s what I’ve tried and so far (fingers crossed!) has worked. =)
Congratulations on #5!

We had ammonia issues with my toddler and the only solution that worked for me was stripping the diapers by washing them with a tablespoon of original blue Dawn dish detergent (and no diaper detergent). Works like a charm, even for me here in Costa Rica where laundry machines aren’t connected to hot water.

Could you tell me a place where I could resell cloth diapers? I was given a large stash with larger sizes I am not able to use and would like to let someone else put them to use. I don’t know of anyone who uses cloth where I am as everyone thinks it is so old fashioned. Thanks for your help.

I buy and sell my cloth diapers on diaperswappers.com It’s a great place to find other mamas selling new and used CDs and even sometimes giving them away. I won a raffle of almost an entire stash of newborn diapers there and resold some of my first child’s dipes for more than I paid. It’s great!

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